Lumber schooner Wapama, last of kind, is condemned

MARITIME HISTORY

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, May 19, 2011

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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The SS Wapama rest on a barge in Richmond harbor, its the last steam lumber schooner in the world, but is so rotten that the national park service plans to dismantle it, even though it is a National Historic landmark. Wednesday, May 11, 2011. less

The SS Wapama rest on a barge in Richmond harbor, its the last steam lumber schooner in the world, but is so rotten that the national park service plans to dismantle it, even though it is a National Historic ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Image 2 of 22

The SS Wapama rest on a barge in Richmond harbor, its the last steam lumber schooner in the world, but is so rotten that the national park service plans to dismantle it, even though it is a National Historic landmark. Wednesday, May 11, 2011. less

The SS Wapama rest on a barge in Richmond harbor, its the last steam lumber schooner in the world, but is so rotten that the national park service plans to dismantle it, even though it is a National Historic ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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The historic steam schooner Wapama at the Hyde Street Pier of the National Maritime Musem, Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Janurary 25, 1979

The historic steam schooner Wapama at the Hyde Street Pier of the National Maritime Musem, Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Janurary 25, 1979

Photo: Dick Frear

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The steam schooner Wapama at Hyde St. Pier. circa June 1972

The steam schooner Wapama at Hyde St. Pier. circa June 1972

Photo: Duke Downey

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The 67-year-old steam-driven Wapama rests on blocks at Pacific Drydock in Oakland.

The 67-year-old steam-driven Wapama rests on blocks at Pacific Drydock in Oakland.

Photo: Terrence McCarthy

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The Wapama on Sausalito Bay on its way to Sausalito from Oakland. July 31, 1986

The Wapama on Sausalito Bay on its way to Sausalito from Oakland. July 31, 1986

Photo: Vince Maggiora

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The steam schooner Wapama, built in 1915.

The steam schooner Wapama, built in 1915.

Photo: John W. Procter

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The historic steam schoooner Wapama, suffering from old age and in danger of breaking in two, passes in front of Alcatraz Island on her way to a shipyard graving dock. April 4, 1979

The historic steam schoooner Wapama, suffering from old age and in danger of breaking in two, passes in front of Alcatraz Island on her way to a shipyard graving dock. April 4, 1979

Photo: Richard Frear

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The lumber schooner Wapama. circa February, 1983

The lumber schooner Wapama. circa February, 1983

Photo: Vincent Maggiora

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Restoration of the lumber schooner Wapama, sitting in a dry dock in Oakland. January 27, 1986

Restoration of the lumber schooner Wapama, sitting in a dry dock in Oakland. January 27, 1986

Photo: Eric Luse

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The Wapama at the Grove St. Pier in Oakland.

The Wapama at the Grove St. Pier in Oakland.

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The steam lumber schooner Wapama on a barge in the Oakland Estuary. January 10, 1983

The steam lumber schooner Wapama on a barge in the Oakland Estuary. January 10, 1983

The lumber schooner Wapama out of water next to the Oakland Estuary. circa 1983

The lumber schooner Wapama out of water next to the Oakland Estuary. circa 1983

Photo: Richard Frear

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The Wapama, a decaying vessel in Sausalito. February 21, 1992

The Wapama, a decaying vessel in Sausalito. February 21, 1992

Photo: Vince Maggiora

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The lumber schooner Wapama, discharging steam exhaust in San Francisco.

The lumber schooner Wapama, discharging steam exhaust in San Francisco.

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The Wapama's hold. The ship carried lumber from logging camps and sawmills of the Pacific Northwest.

The Wapama's hold. The ship carried lumber from logging camps and sawmills of the Pacific Northwest.

Photo: Terrence McCarthy

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The Wapama on a barge at Pacific Drydock in the Oakland Estuary. circa July 1986

The Wapama on a barge at Pacific Drydock in the Oakland Estuary. circa July 1986

Photo: Dick Frear

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The Wapama sitting on a barge in Sausalito. September 20, 1992

The Wapama sitting on a barge in Sausalito. September 20, 1992

Photo: Vince Maggiora

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T. C. Ingersoll is shown by the Wapama in Seattle in October of 1955.

T. C. Ingersoll is shown by the Wapama in Seattle in October of 1955.

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Erik Olson of the National Park Service applies a high tech chemical spray on the deck of the Wapama which will help preserve the wood. August 4, 1988

Erik Olson of the National Park Service applies a high tech chemical spray on the deck of the Wapama which will help preserve the wood. August 4, 1988

Photo: Micheal Maloney

Lumber schooner Wapama, last of kind, is condemned

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The National Park Service has decided to dismantle the 96-year-old steam lumber schooner Wapama, a National Historic Landmark that is the last vessel of its kind.

The Wapama, which had a long career carrying lumber on the so-called Redwood Coast of California and Oregon, had been a museum ship at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, but old age and dry rot have apparently brought the vessel to the end of the line.

"She held on pretty well for a long time, but then she started to go, like an elderly relative that took a turn for the worse," said Robyn Jackson, chief of cultural resources for the maritime park. "But now it's become terminal."

The Wapama is the only survivor of 225 steam-powered schooners madeand is considered "nationally significant as a Pacific Coast expression of America's dependence on maritime trade," according to National Park Service documents.

The 200-foot-long vessel was popular with the public when it first went on display as a museum ship public under auspices of the California State Park system at the Hyde Street pier in 1963.

Mini ocean liner

The Wapama's passenger accommodations made it look like a miniature ocean liner, especially because of a handsome grand staircase that led from the passenger cabins to the dining salon.

There were shipboard displays about the role of the steam schooners and how they operated in all weather out of San Francisco and other ports and maintained regular service to mill towns like Mendocino and Fort Bragg, using harbors so small they were called "dog hole ports" because it was said a dog could hardly turn around in some of them.

The steam schooners flourished from the early 20th century until the Great Depression, though the Wapama operated on the Alaskan coast until about 1947.

Most of the other steam schooners were run up on backwaters, like the far reaches of the Oakland estuary, the Sausalito mudflats, or Candlestick Point in San Francisco, and left to rot. Only the Wapama survived, and was purchased by the state of California to be a museum ship in 1957.

The Wapama was a handsome little ship, but it had endured a hard life at sea, and when it was put on display structural problems began to show up.

Weather-beaten

The wind and the tidal surge at Hyde Street took its toll on the timbers of the Wapama's hull, and in 1980 the ship was taken out of the water and placed on a barge in the hope that money could be found to make major repairs to it.

In the meantime ownership of the historic ships berthed at the Hyde Street pier passed from the state park system to the National Park Service, and some felt the Wapama had become an orphan.

The barge with the ship on it was kept at first in Oakland, then in Sausalito. At first, the Park Service hoped to preserve the ship's timbers from dry rot with a liquid borate solution, but funds for that process dried up after 18 months.

A losing battle

In 1988, a Park Service report said that 80 percent of the ship's structure was decayed, and the efforts of volunteers and some park staff to preserve the ship appeared to be a losing battle.

In the 1990s, a group of marine historians led by retired Rear Adm. Thomas Patterson, and Edward Zelinsky, a Tiburon businessman who was vice president of the World Ship Trust, mounted an effort to save the ship. They were supported by Karl Kortum, a founder of what became the maritime park.

All three men are now dead, and the effort to save the Wapama died with them.

By 1997, the maritime park's general management plan called for "minimal" measures to slow the Wapama's deterioration, but it added, "The vessel's underlying structural decay will not be addressed." That, essentially, was a death sentence for the ship.

The Wapama was removed from Sausalito and stored on its barge out of public sight in a backwater channel in Richmond. Rainwater leaked through the decks, maintenance was at an absolute minimum, and the ship became so riddled with rot that the Park Service now fears it might not survive another winter.

Preliminary government estimates show that it would cost $21.7 million to stabilize the vessel on the barge, and $61.4 million for a full rehabilitation. A congressional appropriation of that size is unlikely.

Instead, the Park Service hopes to preserve the ship's engine, and perhaps some of the timbers or large artifacts.

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There is no timetable for the dismantling of the ship. "Things move slowly in government," Jackson said.

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